Electric railway signaling apparatus



(No Model.)

'A. J. WILSON. ELECTRIC RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

No. 471,410.- Patented Mar. 22, 1892.

a wawto'c SZ M @H'foz M1 4 Q vifwemo 5 NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ADONIRAM J. IVILSON, PORT CHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE HALL SIGNAL COMPANY, OF MAINE.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 471,410, dated March 22, 1892.

Application filed June 15, 1391.

' citizen of the United States, residing at Port Chester, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Electric Railway Signaling Apparatus, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification and the accompanying'drawing, which forms a part hereof.

The invention relates to that class of automatic railway signaling systems operated by the moving train, in which the road is divided up into a number of blocks or sections, with two signals placed at r the entrance of each block or section, the one (ordinarily a red signal) indicating the condition of that block itself and the other (ordinarily a green signal) indicating the condition of the next succeeding block of the line, these two signals being ordinarily known as the home and distance signals, respectively.

The present invention has for its object to more reliably and with simpler mechanism operate such signals; and it consists of the combination of apparatus herein described and claimed.

Heretofore it has been common in manipulating such home and distance signals to cause the home-signal placed at the commencement of any given block to operate the distance-signal placed at that same point when it goes to danger, whereby the distancesignal would also at the same time go to danger. In practice this system is untrustworthy, because it any accidental disarrangement of the apparatus prevented the homesignal from going to danger when it should go to danger the distance-signal does not and cannot remedy the error by itself going to danger, but it, like the home-signal, remains under such circumstances also clear.

In carrying out my invention I employ a system of circuits and parts, such as that represented in the accompanying drawing, which drawing shows diagrammatically one entire block of a railroad equipped according to my invention and a part of the next succeeding block, with the electrical apparatus found at the beginning of eachof the two.

Serial No. 396600. (No model.)

The arrangement of the signals is for a train moving in the direction indicated by the arrow. The road is in any suitable manner divided into blocks of any desired length, as,

say, half a mile each. The train entering the block shown in the drawing shunts the currentfrom the battery 13 through its wheels and axles in the well-known way, thereby cutting off the current from the magnet 2, demagnetizing the same, and permitting the circuit-breaker 15 to open, breaking the circuit of the battery 8, thereby demagnetizing the magnet 1, and thereby breaking the circuit of the battery 7 at the circuit-breaker 5, which latter circuit directly operates the signal H. Thus the signal H is caused to show danger. The demagnetizing of the electromagnet 1 also causes the armature 22 to drop, thereby causing the distance-signal D to show danger. The latter result is accomplished in the following manner: The distance-signal D is normally .held clear by reason of its forming part of a normally-closed circuit through which the current of the battery 25 normally flows, the circuit being battery 25,

wire 26 9 31 3,2, distance-signal D wire 24, to

battery. When the armature 22 falls away from the magnet lby thedemagnetization of the latter, it forms an electrical connection-between the wires 6 and 23, which is ofsmall resistance in comparison with the resistance of the magnets necessary to operate the distancesignalD The current of the battery 25 therefore passes, substantiallyall of it, from the wire 31,through wires 6,22, 23, and 24, back to the battery,thereby shunting the magnet that operates the distance-signal D or sufficiently shunting it to cause the signal D to show danger. Thus the distance-signal D is set at danger independently of the home-signal or of the operation of the home-signal H, and if the latter fails to act when the moving train enters the block the former may still act, and thereby give at least a cautionary signal to the engineer. The signals H and D are supposed to be at the beginning of the line so far as the signal-circuits are concerned. The.

A B, and this through the demagnetizing of the magnets 2 and 1 and the breaking thereby of the circuit operating the home-signal II'and the shunting of the current operating the distance-signal D \Vhen the last wheel of the train has left the block, the electromagnets 2 and 1 are magnetized, the circuit of the battery 7 is closed at 5, thereby clearing the home-signal H, and the short circuit 6 22 23 around the distance-signal D is broken, thereby sending the current again through the distance-signal D which would thereupon clear were it not for the action of the train upon such distance-signal I) through the next succeeding primary signaling-circuit of the next block, for as the first Wheels of the train enter the next block they in an entirely similar manner demagnetize the electromagnets 4; and 3, breaking the local signalcircuit of the battery 12 at 9, thereby showing danger at the home-signal I1 and making the shunt-circuit 27 29 around the distancesignal D at 27, and thereby showing danger at the distance-signal D all as explained in connection with the preceding apparatus; but, in addition to this, the demagnetization of the magnet 3 and the falling away of the circuitbreaker 9 breaks, also, the secondarysign alingcircuit of the distance-signal D situated at the entrance to the preceding block, all as will be entirely evident from the drawing. Thus by my system a train entering a block moves these two signals independently to danger, the one the home-signal and the other the distance-signal,and also upon enteringeach block after the first it continues at danger the distance-signal situated at the entrance of the preceding block, and this independently of any of the other signals or their operation, and I do this by employing a primary signaling-circuit with each block, adapted to be successively operated by the train in passing over the road, and by causing each primary circuit, when operated by the train, to operate independently both the home and the distance signal at the entrance of the block, and also to operate in case of every block after the first and entirely independent of the other signals the distance-signal situated at the entrance of the preceding block.

I have shown in the drawing each primary circuit in the form of a rail-circuit, including the entire length of the rails of each block as a part of the circuit. Instead this primary circuit might be a wire-circuit, affected, for instance, in one way by the train on entering the block and restored to its normal condition by the train leaving the block. Again, there might be less or more intervening apparatus between the primary signals of each block and the signaling-circuits of the re b spective home and distance signals so long as the essential combination of parts is not departed from. Again, the signal itself maybe of any desired construction or modeof operation. For instance, it may be operated by some other power than that of electricity itself, the latter acting merely to control or direct the action of such other power; or the part designated by the signals 11 D I-P'D, &c., herein may be simply electrically-operated locks, for instance for locking mechanically or otherwise the operating-signals in place. In none of these cases would the spirit of the invention be departed from. Moreover, many changes of detail could be made which would be obvious and would not depart from the invention.

That I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In an electric railway signaling system, a series of home-signals II 11 &c., and a series of primary signaling-circuits respeetivelyopcrating or controlling said home-signals and them selves operated successively by the train in passing over the road, in combination with a series of distance-signals D D &c., elcctrically and mechanicallyindependent of the home-signals, and a series of secondary signalingcircuits respectively operating said distance-signals, each of said secondary signaling-circuits h avingacirc nit-breaker adapted to be operated by one of said primary signaling-circuits at a distance and having, also, a short circuit shunting the distance-signal itself and adapted to be operated by the next adjacent primary home signalingeircuit, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

ADONIRAM .l. \VILSON.

\Vituesses:

WM. P. I.IALL,

I. A. .llOORl'lEAD. 

